


Saint Claws

by gotemsayingwow



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2001), Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Post-Canon, absolutely not, domestic kyoru parenting at its finest, is there a point to this?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28315263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotemsayingwow/pseuds/gotemsayingwow
Summary: Some domestic, Christmas fluff with Kyoru and their three children.
Relationships: Honda Tohru/Sohma Kyou
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	Saint Claws

How did he let himself end up in this situation? As Kyo Sohma wrestles with a plastic bag and a spoonful of icing, he silently curses the decisions he made in the days leading up to this catastrophe. The kitchen smells of burnt sugar, his hands are sticky, and his clothes are stained with food coloring. Of course he loves his children and his wife, but this was really testing the ‘unconditional’ aspect of that love.

It all started just a few days ago. Tohru was back in the capital for the week helping Hanajima out with her new baby and he was left with all three of their children. It wasn’t the first time and he didn’t mind being left with them. The two boys were old enough to keep themselves occupied. His daughter wasn’t quite self-sufficient yet  _ and  _ she demanded the most attention, but even she seemed to be on her best behavior. Tohru must have bribed her before she left.

Kyo had left the two boys in the lobby of the dojo to do their schoolwork while he prepared for afternoon classes with his daughter at his heels. When he peeked in to check on them, he narrowed his eyes. “That is  _ not  _ homework,” he scolded.

Hajime, who was holding a green piece of construction paper in one hand and scissors in the other whipped his head around. His younger brother, who was pressing a glue stick to a circle of red paper, blushed.

“We didn’t have any today,” Hajime responded, his eyes wide in sincerity. “We’re working on a special project instead.”

Kyo inspected the contents of the floor between the two boys and saw glue, red and green glitter, and heaps of red and green construction paper. “This is a school project?” Kyo asked, quirking an eyebrow. 

“Not exactly,” Hajime responded. “It’s a project for mom.”

“We’re having Christmas!” his younger son exclaimed.

“Christmas,” Kyo repeated. 

“Christmas,” Hajime affirmed. “Mom gets home on Christmas Eve, so we’re going to make Christmas decorations for her.” He beckoned his sister over to help and handed her a pair of scissors and a piece of paper.

“Jeez, okay, how about we  _ don’t _ give her scissors?” Kyo sighed, exasperated. 

“It’s okay, papa, they’re the baby ones,” Hajime’s little brother insists. He holds them up and runs his finger along the plastic ‘blade’ as proof. “See? Not sharp.”

“Damn, you really came prepared, huh?” Kyo muttered under his breath. “Why are you making Christmas decorations? We don’t even celebrate Christmas.”

“Well, now we do,” Hajime replied. 

Kyo had texted Tohru that evening, after all of the kids were asleep. When he sent a message saying the kids wanted to celebrate Christmas this year, his phone immediately began ringing, the screen displaying Tohru’s name and the picture she had set for when she called. 

He listened patiently as she chattered away, talking all about how the capital was decorated for Christmas, the stores displaying fir trees adorned with red and green baubles and lights. Hanajima even had a tree in her house, though hers was decorated with black ornaments, of course. The more she spoke, the more animated she became and, by the time he hung up, he frowned and realized Hajime was right. Yes, they do celebrate Christmas now. How could he  _ not _ after hearing all four of them so excited?

It was how, on the afternoon of the 24th of December, he ended up in this mess. 

Tohru is due home in just a few hours. And here he is, with powdered sugar all over the counters, construction paper littered at his feet. Hajime, bless him, is trying to be helpful by coaxing his siblings out from under Kyo’s feet, but between his sticky hands, the stepping on pairs of child scissors, and his children bickering, he is feeling overwhelmed.

Truly it is his fault. Kyo is the one who suggested, after speaking with Tohru, that they  _ really _ do Christmas. The house was decked out with tinsel and a tiny tree on the  _ chabudai  _ table. The kids’ crafts decorated the walls all over the house. A string of Christmas lights was wrapped around the stair railing. And now, in the final hours of Tohru’s absence, he was trying for the  _ third  _ time to finish a strawberry shortcake, which his children insisted was the  _ most important  _ part of Christmas.

The main problem is that Kyo is a shit baker. Even as he diligently follows the handwritten recipe Tohru has in a recipe book, he can’t get the damn thing right. The first cake came out the density and texture of a brick. That time, he missed an ingredient, so it was understandable. The second time he simply burnt the thing. And  _ that _ was his daughter’s fault because he had been negotiating with her to get dressed when the timer went off.

This third cake, however, is excellent. Now, it’s just the frosting that is giving him trouble. While the third cake was baking, he watched several videos on how to appropriately frost a cake while sitting on the floor amongst the mess and chaos. He let the cake cool, made sure the frosting wasn’t too firm or too soft, and set aside several different bowls to mix the colors his children chose. 

Except he couldn’t find a ‘pastry bag,’ whatever the hell  _ that _ was. He couldn’t find  _ any  _ plastic bags, especially not after Tohru had watched a documentary about how plastic was killing all the little creatures that lived in the ocean. He had Hajime searching with him, but they came up empty. 

“Can’t I just spread it around with a knife?” Kyo asks Hajime.

Hajime rolls his eyes. “Dad,  _ no _ ,” he insists and Kyo resists the urge to thump the twerp for his attitude, even though it was Kyo who asked for his input. “If you do that, the colors will all mix and you’ll end up with a puke-colored cake.”

Kyo sighs. “So we can just do white, then.”

From the floor, his daughter wails. “ _ No _ , papa!” She demands. 

Kyo’s mouth sets in a frustrated line as he inspects his daughter. “What do you mean, ‘no?’”

“I want purple!” She demands.

“Fine then; an all-purple cake,” Kyo acquiesces.

“Hey, what the hell?” his middle son of only the ripe age of six says, and Kyo whips his head to fix his attention on  _ him _ . “I mean, that’s not fair!”

“Okay, well it’s definitely not going to be  _ your  _ color,” Kyo warns. “Watch your language.”

“Well, you  _ did  _ say we could all choose a color,” Hajime mutters under his breath.

He narrows his eyes at Hajime, who just shrugs. Out of the corner of his eye, Kyo glances at the time and realizes that they have less than an hour before Tohru is expected to walk through the door. “Okay, all three of you,  _ out,”  _ Kyo demands. “I’ll finish the cake, you guys just  _ leave. _ ”

* * *

Tohru is downright exhausted. Having spent the better part of a week helping Hana-chan through midnight feedings, diaper changes, and general postnatal recovery, she feels as if  _ she  _ had a baby all over again. As she snakes through the familiar streets towards home, her body is tingling with the need to be in her own house, with her own family, surrounded by her own things.

And so, to her delight, as she pulls up to their house, she sees three auburn heads, poking out from under a blanket, sitting against the wall on the  _ engawa _ . She shifts the car into park and slides out. As she does so, her two youngest children bound towards her, wearing their snow boots and thick winter coats. Hajime follows slowly behind, trying not to look too eager.

She giggles at her children, who are all dressed as if they are going to ski. “What are you doing out here? It’s freezing.”

“Dad said we had to leave,” her middle son reports. “He said we can’t live here anymore.”

Her daughter stomps her foot. “He did  _ not _ ,” she insists. Looking up at her mother with burnt orange eyes, she replies “Papa said we were in his way. He made us dress up for snow, but there’s  _ no  _ snow!”

Tohru laughs and looks to Hajime for the real answer. Hajime responds “He said we were all being too whiny.” Hajime grimaces. “Which is wrong, because  _ I  _ was not being whiny,  _ I  _ was being helpful. But we were in his way so he made us come outside.”

Kyo joins them on the back deck and welcomes her home with a kiss. “Welcome home,” he says, smiling warmly. “What they are  _ trying  _ to tell you is that they mutinied against me and forced me to become Saint Claws or whatever.”

“Santa Claus,” Tohru corrects. 

“Yeah, him,” Kyo responds. He lightly presses a fist to the crown of Hajime’s head. “And  _ this one _ was not being helpful, he was full of attitude.”

“So now we can’t live here anymore,” her middle son pipes up. Kyo nods in affirmation. 

Tohru giggles again and wraps all four of them up in a hug. “Can’t they at least stay for one more night, Kyo-kun?” The children at her feet cheer. “Then we can find them a new home. But just for today. On Christmas.”

Kyo relents, laying his faux disappointment and disagreement on thick. “ _ Fine, _ ” he grunts, but he smiles at Tohru. “Now come inside, we have Christmas for you.”

* * *

The five of them spent the evening eating and being merry. Tohru laughed at the fact that, in all of the drama of making a cake, they had actually forgotten to prepare dinner. The children grumbled about the cake that ended up being thickly frosted with  _ pink _ icing, complaining that mom didn’t even help, so why should it be her favorite color? They read an old italian folk tale about Christmas, lent to Tohru from Hanajima. Tohru replaced the name ‘Santa Claus’ with ‘Saint Claws,’ which sent the children into giggling fits.

Finally, after cups of hot cocoa, baths, and red and green pajamas Tohru had bought in the capital, all three of the children were in bed and she and Kyo were finally alone.

“I have a Christmas present for you,” Kyo whispers into the crown of her hair as they cuddle under thick blankets on the couch.

Tohru sits up and claps her hands in glee. “I have one for you, too.” She rises up from her spot and dashes to her purse, where there is a plain, white envelope addressed with his name on it. Kyo, meanwhile, reaches down and slides his poorly-wrapped present out from under the couch.

“You go first,” Kyo insists. Tohru excitedly tears into the wrapping paper to reveal a picture frame. In all of their Christmas preparation, Kyo had actually gone out and bought three matching sweaters for his children to wear. They were posed in the  _ genkan  _ of the dojo, his daughter sitting on Hajime’s shoulders and his middle son standing next to the two of them. Kyo had bribed the two younger ones to pose using Christmas-themed sweets he had also picked up from the shop. It ended up being a shockingly good picture, which was rare when Kyo was the photographer, so he took it to have it framed.

“Oh, Kyo-kun,” Tohru whispers, her eyes wet. She gently strokes the glass covering all three of her children’s rosy cheeks before setting it down gently on the floor. “Thank you.” She kisses him sweetly on the lips before planting her envelope in his hands. “Okay, your turn!”

Kyo runs his thumb under the sealed envelope and pulls out a single piece of paper. On it are two different notes from two different people, neither of which are Tohru. In the first note, signed by Akito, it tells him that there will be no New Years’ banquet this year due to ‘family circumstances.’ In the second note, signed by Kazuma, he is informed that Shishou will be coming in two days to pick the kids up to bring them to the capital for the New Year. 

Kyo whips his head up to meet her gaze. “Is this for real?” He asks and Tohru bites back a smile and nods. Kyo can’t help the smile that forms across his face. He will get to spend the New Year  _ not  _ at a banquet and  _ not  _ at the main Sohma estate and  _ not  _ around family, but with just his wife instead. He has a million questions running through his brain about exactly how and why this was all negotiated, but none of that matters right this second. 

He kisses her deeply before pressing his forehead to hers. “This is the best Christmas ever.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay here are my ridiculous headcanons for this piece:  
> -When Tohru is gone, Hajime becomes Tohru and Kyo constantly asks him what Tohru would be doing.  
> -Kyoru's middle son has a total potty mouth and a temper like Kyo's  
> -Tohru watched the documentary A Plastic Ocean and cried for approximately 3 days before recycling all of the plastic that they own  
> -Kyo is a shit baker and a shit photographer, mainly because that's what Tohru usually does.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this pointless, fluffy, probably not-well-written piece!


End file.
